French court approves release of Lebanese activist Georges Abdallah

A French court has approved the release of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, a Lebanese man who has spent almost four decades behind bars for attacks targeting American and 'Israeli' diplomats in the 1980s, French broadcaster BFM TV reported on Thursday.

Abdallah, the founder of the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Brigade (LARB), was convicted in 1987 and handed a life sentence for his involvement in the 1982 assassinations of US military attaché Charles Ray and 'Israeli' diplomat Yacov Barsimantov in Paris. He was also found guilty of the attempted murder of US Consul General Robert Homme in Strasbourg in 1984.